Cold, Hard Facts

Made it out to Anaheim today to watch the Angels lose to Texas, 4-3. It wasn't a bad game, but it irritates me that the organization doesn't take home field advantage seriously. Cross posted from HH:

Cold, hard facts:

1.) If we play Tampa in Tampa, we will lose.
2.) If we continue to play like we did today, we will play Tampa in Tampa.
3.) If we don’t make it to the Series this year, it’s not getting any easier in the foreseeable future.
4.) If we play well enough to have the best record in baseball for three months and don’t have it at the end, we need to seriously re-evaluate our front office, from Arte to Mike, and figure out why home field advantage doesn’t matter to them.

I’m not saying anything any idiot couldn’t figure out. I don’t give a flying fuck how good we are on the road: Every other AL team is downright mediocre, if not terrible, on the road. Instead of trying to outplay teams in their house, why not force them to figure out how to play in Anaheim? It’s nonsensical, and it is Mike Scioscia’s biggest failing.

And finally, here’s my typical idiot fan side coming out: I get to go to maybe three games a year. It really sucks when I get to a game and don’t get to see Torii Hunter or Vlad Guerrero. It really sucks that my manager phones in a game which can drop his team’s magic number by two and give his closer another save on his way to major league history. It sucks that I have to watch Sean Rodriguez strike out three times in one game and then check-swing groundball his way into a game ending play at first. For once, I’d like to see the damn team win when I see them.


Miscellany

• I'll have a little writeup about the state of Northeastern athletics, particularly compared to both athletic powerhouses like USC and similar institutions, like BU and Appalachian State, some time later this week. Brief summary: NU needs to start caring about athletics.
  
• The Yankees suck, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This year will mark Derek Jeter's first October tee time.
  
• Woodland Hills, Calabasas, and the interior of West Village buildings have always been notoriously bad areas to try and reach me via cell phone. No longer. For $30 on eBay, I picked up a Motofone F3 and started making uninterrupted calls from my house for the first time since the days of the Motorola StarTAC. The phone was designed for use in third world countries, so it lacks features but gets stellar reception and battery life. SMS, on the other hand, is kinda a pain in the ass...